the proposed 2-storey medical centre is on the right-hand side of the picture

IntroductionThe proposed Hub will include a new medical centre, library, theatre/hall, coffee shop, community rooms, football pavilion and town council offices, together with retail and housing, forming a new town centre for Southborough.

SAMC has the support of the West Kent Clinical Commission Group and NHS Property, for the scheme to go ahead as we want to cope better with our increasing number of patients and provide extra services.

Keeping our patients informedThis page will be refreshed whenever we have new information for you on SAMC's plans. We also intend to send newsletter updates to those on our email mailing list*, and to place copies in the waiting room.

Click on the tab above to see the Frequently Asked Questions page. Do feel free to email additional questions you might have which will then be added here (not including your name), together with our responses. We may not have immediate answers to all of your questions as detailed plans are still to be developed, but they will be logged here together with an answer when we have one.

LATEST UPDATE from KCC: 16th November 2018
The revised plans for the Southborough hub development have been agreed by the board and have been submitted to planning. The new plans reflect the previous aspirations for the facility and include a hall/theatre, community rooms, GP surgery, library, football pavilion and council facilities.

Public consultation has now started on the plans with consultation material and feedback forms available in Southborough Library throughout November and or online via the planning portal. Feedback to date on the café and toilets has already been fed back to the architect with potential changes being made to improve upon the design. Frequently asked questions and plans for the designs can be found here.http://www.southboroughcouncil.co.uk/southborough-community-hub/
The project is being resubmitted after coming in over budget and costs have been saved through predominantly cutting back on generous areas of circulation space which delivers little in terms of tangible benefits to the scheme. The Southborough based architects have also made changes to ensure the new designs give a form and shape which are more traditional. They have also managed to create a larger square between the Hub and the housing by pushing the facility further north thus increasing the size of the public realm and accentuating the building.

SAMC and The Hub(updated JULY 18TH 2018 see items in red)

Do feel free to email additional questions you might have which will then be added here (not including your name), together with our responses. We may not have immediate answers to all of your questions as detailed plans are still to be developed, but they will be logged here together with an answer when we have one.

What will be the benefits for patients? Opportunity to receive more in ‘the community services’: patients can receive a wider range of services at SAMC that they might otherwise have to travel to hospital or other clinics for. These may include counseling, physiotherapy and specialist diabetes support.Note: The hub’s integration of the medical centre with the other community services enables the cross transfer of public health messages as well as education on preventative health care.
(question posted 1/7/2016; answered 1/7/2016 - closed)

What are the benefits for SAMC clinicians and staff?More space will make it much easier to offer the best services to our patients, with more consulting rooms, better office conditions and sufficient storage for equipment.Note: our patient list is 8,500 currently and is expected to reach 10,000 within the next four years.The current centre has six consultancy rooms and two treatments rooms, and the plan is to increase this to 10 and four, respectively.(question posted 1/7/2016; answered 1/7/2016 - closed)

Will the medical centre be used in the evenings?Not for general practice by SAMC but we may rent out appropriate treatment rooms for other practitioners related to well-being, e.g. physiotherapy and plough any funds back into the practice for the benefit of our patients.(question posted 18/10/2016; answered 18/10/2016 - closed)

Timing

When will the new medical centre be open?The developers are planning to complete the new build by the end of 2019.(question posted 1/7/2016;– but still open for updates)

Where can I check the progress of the move?Here on our website – Southborough Hub page; and/or by signing up to receive our quarterly newsletter via email (you can do on this website) or by looking at a copy in the medical centre.(question posted 1/7/2016; answered 1/7/2016 - closed)

General

Will the number of patients increase?Not as a direct result but patient numbers have risen 4-fold in the last 30 years to more than 8,000 currently, and this is expected to reach 10,000 within the next four years.(question posted 1/7/2016; answered 1/7/2016 - closed)

Will there be sufficient car parking places for patients?

The hub car park will have around 90 spaces available to any Hub user (our originally ‘earmarked' parking in Pinewood Gardens has around 12 places)

There will 2 disabled spaces and staff parking immediately adjacent to the medical centre

Some of the 90 places are also likely to be reserved for disabled parking

Given that 90 places are available, it may not be necessary to earmark some of those spaces for the exclusive use of visitors to StAMC

As it is now in the Yew Tree Road car park, it is likely that the first 2 hours of any parking will be free